I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one's name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog! -Emily Dickinson

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

LETTER TO MY BODY

Dear Body, faithful friend…

You have been my strong and patient companion all these
years. I understand why, finally, between the pulling of Spirit and the bullying
punches of relentless Ego, you have begun to flag.

Ego shoved your feet into spindly heels and pointy toes, hated those feet or your nose, ate too much, starved for vanity, applied chemical
spills to your head. Smoked. Drank. Ego, that harridan-slave, pretender to the throne, painted you,
shoved you, made you walk when you needed to rest and starve when you needed to
eat - treated you like a dumb stubborn beast.

Even Spirit, your better friend, abandoned you when she was hurt,
leaving you in the wrong embraces of strangers, or empty and still, near-lifeless.

Spirit never stopped wanting more. Ego screamed you down – you,
the one perfectly attuned to the real.

You have been a warrior and a joy and I thank you for your
still-brave efforts. You have deserved better.

Now you get lentils and blueberries and to watch the dawn -
and we work together. Ego is banished to
the cheap seats (but still managing to bawl loudly for attention) spirit is finally
seeing and hearing you.We treat you
with respect and gratitude.

You brought such gifts…love’s touch, the passing of wind
through my hair. You smelled the apple trees and buried your face in a dog’s
warm fur. You connected everything, knew everything. You took grave punishment
and rallied a thousand times. Thank you for my hands and pleasure of making. Thank you for the sights my eyes have seen and for music and voices and sure instincts. For all of that.

And now, late, I do not regret – but am
astonished at your resilience.Stay a little yet, my weary soldier so that we can pay our overdue respects?